M.R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernise a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognisable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying

The second book we got this evening is Syd Moore's Witch Hunt. Before she read from her book, Syd told a fascinating story of over 500 witches killed in Essex alone between Mind-blowing story.

The crunching noise had resumed, now accompanied by a disgusting, indefinable smell. The voice spoke again, now slightly louder and clearer: 'Don't go. Don't go yet. I'm not finished.' In an isolated village three friends set to work renovating a derelict house. But soon they realise they are not alone there

Tthis House is Haunted John Boyne

Two young cousins, Leonora and Edward, spend the summer with their ageing spinster aunt at Iyot House, her decaying home, deep in the damp lonely fens. When spoilt Leonora's birthday wish for a beautiful doll is thwarted, she unleashes a furious rage which haunts her quiet, subdued cousin for years afterwards and has dark and sinister consequences which neither can escape

It's the weekend of Halloween, and PI John Craine has temporarily closed down his business and gone to stay in a rundown old hotel on Hale Island - a small, bleak island just off the coast of Essex. He's come to Hale to get away from it all - the memories and the guilt, and a past that just won't let go

The Chicago vampires fear that they've reached a dead end. Anti-vampire riots have been erupting, instigated by a figure from the Siberian woods. As the chaos escalates, Homeland Security's newly created paranormal wing arrives to give Merit and Ethan backup. But the battle is just beginning

King says he wanted to know what happened to Danny Torrance, the boy at the heart of 'The Shining', after his terrible experience in the Overlook Hotel. The instantly riveting Doctor Sleep picks up the story of the now middle-aged Dan, working at a hospice in rural New Hampshire, and the very special twelve-year old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals